Great piece here on Mark Few finding that grass isn't always greener on the other side and staying put can be great too. I can only hope a coach see Athens in this same light one day.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/123...

Agreed. If the budget was there for even $800-850k when Groce was looking at Illinois, it could have gone a long way to keeping him.

I've been imagining all year how this group would have looked last year with Levert and Bradd's next to Kellogg. Yowza. I'm with you on continuing to develop the program into the dominant force in the MAC. It's all about continuity & recruiting the right players, and hitting a couple 'home runs' in recruiting. DJ was a home run for Groce. As was Bassett for a year.

Saul needs a couple guys like that, and then we need Saul to stay in Athens as long as he says he intends to. If that happens, in a handful of years, the budget could be there to offer the kind of dollars and resources needed to keep Saul from leaving for anything but a monster job at a Power 5 basketball school. That's all conjecture, but the potential is certainly there for it to happen.


(maybe Simmons, Dartis, or Kaminski are that kind of player, who knows)

Don't know the exact numbers but he got a nice bump in 2002 when he was courted by Washington or Washington State (don't remember which). He was one of the highest paid mid-major coaches at the time. But my point isn't that he was chasing money. Only that if you find the right situation they still have to make it worth your while. We've made a commitment to keep the program at a high level so hopefully we are reaching that kind of territory.

That has been a key. Not much comp out there for miles and miles. PAC 1- is a good conference but the Zags have been fortunate to be in a next level league they can run or at least be at the top year after year. Recruiting local (and international like st marys)kids to play there is much easier than it is as you start getting bball density coming east and crossing the Mississippi continuing to roll eastward... Just in IN ILL OHIO look at how many good programs there are for the type of kid that will work his butt off and get skilled. Without getting into the philosophy of assembling a Seton Hall, UConn, or St Johns with local kids vs Indiana, Wisconsin etc you got to know there is a hell of a lot of talent flying under the radar with less local choices out west...and the type of kid you get in the west or midwest has a different mindset than those coming out of a lot of east coast situation. Random thoughts pondering the state of the game out there.....